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Sunday, June 29, 2008

I found some cover art for the editions of Willard Price books I used to own as a kid, presented below for your entertainment and edification!These covers really do just have that much more action going on than the newer ones. Animal attack galore and all the panic-stricken adventure you could want!

- Woke up feeling like a family of rats were having a domestic in my head. My stomach was no picnic either. I guess not all red wines are created equal.

- Cleaned that kitchen while Alex was out with her mum.

- Played some TF2, which I’m still enjoying, but is starting to lose some of its lustre.

- Went out with Alex over to Dalston. Was headed to the Matalan there to get some clothes, but the place was rammed, so we just browsed about then went to Sainsburys for dinner stuff. After that, my Saturday Afternoon Dalston High Street Tolerance was at an end so it was time to get out of Dodge. Went by Leyland and picked up some nuclear strength drain cleaner. The kind that comes in a plain box with “Sulphuric Acid” warnings on the side.

- Got home, went to switch on my PC and....nothing. No signs of life at all. All I was getting, upon unplugging, replugging and button pressing, was a brief sign of life in my external drive, a flash of light on the power and HDD indictors and then nothing at all. I played around with it for a bit, then just as I was about give up it decided to work. That wasn’t then end of it either. Later in the evening, restarting after an install, it seemed to disable the graphics card drivers and generally run veeerrryyy slooooow. Okay, so the afternoon’s wackiness wasn’t just a one-off. Something’s up. I shut down and then....nothing. Back to that again. So once again I played around for a while and once again it miraculously, for no obvious reason, started up. It’s still running now, but I’m going to take a proper look tonight. I’m thinking it’s a problem with the power supply, but I guess it could be something fritzed on the motherboard. Anyway, it did spur me into doing that proper back-up I’ve been meaning to do for a while now...

- Finished off working on the gift list which we’ll post a link to on the wedding website tomorrow.

- Watched some Glastonbury coverage. I do want to go to one of the big festivals before I leave this country. Of course my real preference would be Download, but Glastonbury would be an experience I guess. Alex is talking about going for her birthday next year, so maybe then.

- Watched the pilot episode of The Middleman, a new tv series based on a comic that I rather like. I enjoyed it, and it’s certainly faithful to the comic (as it should be, adapted by the comic’s creator), but I’m not sure it’s good enough for me to keep up with. It suffers, like Reaper, under my “Thou Shalt Not Waste Any More Time on ‘Decent’, ‘Okay’ or ‘Alright’ Television” commandment. Unless of course it’s something I watch with Alex, in which case it coes under the “Thou Shalt Make An Effort To Share Entertainments With Thine Partner” commandment (as laid out by the mighty Thor). I still have 4 seasons of The Wire to watch, after all, and I’m intrigued by the buzz on Mad Men. Not to mention the backlog of films, comics and books I have. Also, there’s this whole “creative ambitions” malarky I really need to spend some time on.

- Read for a while then hit the hay.

- Dreamt I was walking down a hill in high winds pushing a pram. Suddenly, as though possessing its own will, the pram twisted from my grip and began to plummet toward the bottom of the hill. I screamed out for someone to help, but there was no one near enough and my baby continued careening down the steep hill toward the busy street at the bottom. As a sense of terrible dread fell upon me I saw my baby’s face peering out from the runaway pram, its features a mess of circuitry and wires, small sparks, like tears, falling from its bright, shiny eyes. Not sure what it means.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Saturday, it's a Saturday. But yesterday I:- Got up late-ish and deliberated endlessly about what I was going to do.

- Went down to Angel to write, pick up a couple of frames for my Guera pieces and have some lunch. Didn't take my bank card. Luckily I had enough money for lunch, but I had to head back home to get my card which, it turns out, was hidden away in my wallet all along! Oh how I laughed!

- Got a frame for the smaller Guera, but the large one is an awkward bloody size.

- Bought a copy of the original Cape Fear boxed with the Scorsese one in the HMV sale. Got home and realised that I already owned the Scorsese. Time for a moritorium on DVD purchasing I think. Though I would like that region one Mist...

- Met Alex down near Angel and headed to Farringdon to meet her folks. Went to dinner at Kolossi, a Cypriot joint in Exmouth Market. Excellent, copious food and great service. The place is run by these old guys who are real characters, joining in conversations and occasionally just wandering past the table to check how we're getting on and shouting "Excellent! Wonderful!"

- Jumped a bus down to the Southbank for Matt's birthday drinks at Namco Station. Was impressed, as I always am when I see it up close, by the London Eye. It really is a nicely done modern tourist attraction. Anyway, drinks were nice, though I didn't get to catch up with everyone, but I had a good time. Though I was horrified to discover that for pool at Namco they charge 20p/minute! How do they get away with that? £12 for an hour of pool?

- On our way home, Doug, Nat and I popped into a self-conciously arty bar called Concrete and had a nice final round before heading for the bus over Waterloo Bridge. Got home about 2 and clumsily bumped around the flat, waking up Alex. Collapsed into bed and went to sleep.

- Dreamt that my head was full of bread and nails, a mixture of stupifying mug-headedness and piercing agony. My throat had been surgically scraped with a wood rasp and my stomach was a churning sea of bile and booze. Woke up to discover it was all true. Know exactly what it means.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Did anything shape my childhood love of reading more than the series of books below the break? I think not. Politically incorrect, but absolutely rammed with facts about wildlife, wildnerness survival, and even - if occasionally a little patronising - other cultures. Do you remember....the Adventure books of Willard Price?

First line of the first book? "Hal sat on the head of a stuffed crocodile in the lobby of the Quito hotel and cleaned his gun."

Hal, 18, and his brother Roger, 14, travel the world for their father, a bring 'em back alive supplier for "zoos, circuses & museums". Museums. Think about that.

These covers are not the ones that I had as a kid, which were far more exciting and action focused, but I can't find those at all. Rather, these are ones from a set I bought a little while back for a (hush now) Top Secret Project.

Each book would start with the boys arriving in some new location with a list from their father of animals they needed to nab. They face various natural and man-made challenges before invariably some kind of villain enters the story with a plan to secure sunken treasure, poach ivory, or even (later on) take revenge! There was occasional unexpected twist in there, but that was the formula.

The books steamroll along, nary a chapter passing without some kind of challenge (or three) to overcome using Hal & Roger's seemingly encyclopaedic knowledge of the wild.

Although they don't exactly hold up to modern standards of acceptability, there's much to recommend the books. The boys are smart and resourceful. For all the guns getting waved about, it's the application of their knowledge that ultimately saves Hal and Roger. Most importantly, as any good children's fiction should, they transport the reader to worlds outside their own scope of knowledge, feeding and encouraging their curiousity.

"My aim in writing the Adventure series for young people was to lead them to read by making reading exciting and full of adventure. At the same time I want to inspire an interest in wild animals and their behavior. Judging from the letters I have received from boys and girls around the world, I believe I have helped open to them the worlds of books and natural history."- Willard Price (1887-1983)

Bonus: From the editions I had as a kid, the cover to Whale Adventure...

Right now I'm wondering what I'm going to do with my day. But yesterday I:- Slept in and so didn't do my writing for the morning. Bad Andrew.

- Worked, doing Thursday things. Filed like a bastard and got it all done. Busy day, so I'm happy about that. Props to Tom for till support. What? It is like a military operation.

- Can't remember what I did when I got home. Watched some telly. Read some internets. Went to sleep at about 10pm.

- Dreamt I floated across the top of a wheat field, my weightless body moving with the swaying grasses. Somewhere, someone was shouting my name and I tried to lift my head to see who, but I just couldn't. It was so nice out there in the grass, with the gentle, soporific hissing of the wheat and the restful, aimless movement. All I wanted was to lay back at last and sleep. Not sure what it means.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

So tired....can't think well...yesterday I:- Worked. Spent some time on the delivery, but mostly did other stuff, like building a list of people for Josh to speak to at San Diego, fleshing out my library supply Big Picture(tm) and some other stuff that I don't actually remember. I was busy though, so I guess I was doing something worthwhile.

- Played Professor Layton's Curious Village at lunch. Puzzle-solving fun!

- Went for some food with everyone to Silva's, a fatty unfriendly establishment around the corner from work. Nice people, but god help you squeezing behind their tables if you have a gut. Take your belly-wheel elsewhere, my rotund brothers and sisters. Well, that, or lose weight and give in to THE MAN! And heart disease.

- Looked admiringly at my side-burns. My hair doesn't get this long very often and my sideburns are taking on a pleasantly plump aspect, like some gentleman of old.

- Got home to discover that someone had tried to break into our flat during the day. Our upstairs neighbour had seen the guy lurking about and had scared him off. He then pursued him up the road and got the cops onto him, who actually got him. Nice work gangbusters! And thank YOU, Islington burglar, for making my life a bit more stressful. Though actually, a browse through the Met's crime statistics yields some interesting results that a panic happy media don't want you to know. For example, knife crime in the London Metropolitan area for the last 12 months? Down by 13.7%. Okay, as a former criminology major I shouldn't be touting stats blind, particularly from a source as partisan as the Metropolitan Police, but at least it helps to give some perspective.

- Called mum, who is very excited to be coming to the wedding.

- Read some comics, including Final Crisis #2 (much better than #1, which I was quite happy with anyway), Pigeons From Hell #3 (Joe Lansdale adapts and improvises on ReH) and BPRD : The Ectoplasmic Man (bloody great, and drawn by New Zealand's own Ben Stenbeck). Plus a bunch of others that were firmly in the "flick through for work" category. Still got some goodies to get through from the week, though.

- Hit the sack a bit too late.

- Dreamt I was in a magical forest, on a path lined with pretty yellow flowers. Birds sang in the trees above the path and the sun dappled the earth, lighting and guiding my way towards granny's house. But off the path lurked something menacing and indefinable. A darkness moved within the shadowed places between the trees, stalking my every move. A shapeless mass, whispering softly of threatened violations. Walking quickly, I ignored the thing which lay at the periphery of my vision, but granny's house was still far off and night was beginning to fall. Not sure what it means.

- Continued listening to the Ruins audio book. Decided I may as well carry on, though my London Biography audio collection should be arriving in the next day or so, so I might switch to that when it comes.

- Got home, had smoked haddock for dinner, which was delicious. I’m very happy to get rid of this fish, however, as the damned thing has been stinking out our freezer ever since we bought it. Seriously, even the ice cubes were smelling fishy. A day of defrosting in the fridge and now our whole bloody house smells like a fishmongers. Still, that was one tasty fish.

- Went straight into working on our wedding invites, guillotining response cards and assembling envelope, card & invite parcels for Alex to put the finishing touches on. Time consuming, monotonous work which basically took us through until midnight and it’s still not finished.

- While we worked we watched Eastenders, a Ryan Reynolds film called Chaos Theory (eh), the F Word, Big Brother and presumably something else that I can’t remember at all. Actually, we might’ve just switched to music videos. It does make me shudder when I think how much of my twenties was just spent vegging in front of the telly. I have so many more interactive ways to waste my fucking time now.

- Went to bed, not having posted my “Things I did” post, despite it being written earlier in the day. How frustrating.

- Dreamt I was trapped in a gigantic glass bowl, it’s sides slick with some kind of cloyingly scented slime. The base of the bowl was an area no larger than 10 foot square. Try as I might I couldn’t climb the slippery walls to reach the lush, verdant greenery that lay beyond the glass. Not sure what it means.

So much for normal service. Anyway, the day before yesterday, I:- Woke up in Brighton, where Alex and I had been for the previous day and a half. Felt quite sprightly, though our hotel room was like an oven once the sun started to gain some strength. By 8.30 I just couldn’t lie in anymore, so we got ourselves ready and checked out at about 10.

- Got some breakfast on the waterfront, then went for a wander down the pier, reading the heritage trail signs as we did. We decided we should do at least one ride, so we went on the log flume which was a good laugh. Then went for one last beer on the pier before heading for the train station via a few shops.

- Caught up on my web stuff, cleared my inbox and played some TF2. It’s weird when you play on a server populated by a bunch of mic-ed guys who obviously play together a lot. In-jokes abound (some German guy kept singing “I want La-La-La-La-Lana”) and the friendly nature of it all makes you feel like some kind of interloper. Good fun though.

- As I mentioned yesterday, I got the DS Cooking Guide, which is fantastic! Hundreds of recipes, video instructions, shopping list and meal planner and all kinds of other options. The funniest thing is, appeasing the gamers, you can actually unlock recipes by doing others. Ridiculous, really, but still a fun feature.

- Speaking of DS, on the train home from Brighton I started playing Professor Layton’s Curious Village, a puzzle-solving game which is seriously addictive, though it suffers from the “I’m tired of reading, get on with it” style of Japanese gaming. Though I suppose you could also categorise it as the “developed storyline to draw you in” style. For my part, it depends on my mood.

- Read some more of my book, watched the latest Venture Brothers (I must buy them on DVD) and went to sleep.

- Dreamt I was slow-roasting on a spit above a campfire. All around me danced the twisted visages of deformed old men dressed in scout uniforms. Fat bubbled beneath my skin as the flames licked my back and the more I screamed the louder they laughed. Nearby a satyr sat upon a large, black rock, playing a devilish jig on an elaborate set of pipes. Not sure what it means.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Oops. Pardon the recent slackness, regular service will be resumed tomorrow. In the meantime, let's just say I've worked, done dinner with the in-laws, had a fairly productive day off, taken Alex away to Brighton for a long weekend (where I've picked up a pretty wicked sunburn), gotten an amazing cookery guide for the DS and finished reading Y the Last Man (tearjerker!).

Oh, I also watched The Ruins, which I was halfway through the audiobook of, so not the smartest move, but certainly an entertaining one. Good little horror with some wince-inducing gore. The question now is: do I finish the book? I guess I should, as right from the start there are significant differences, and I'm sure the audiobook experience will give it more depth. Plus, y'know, a horror story about killer vines is perfect walking to work material.

In additional news: remember the Scalped art I bought? The original art for the bookplate done for us by RM Guera was nice enough:

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

So much to do, so much to do. And yesterday I:- Got sent a finished first draft of a friend’s screenplay to have a read through. Well done! Very excited about reading this, which I’ll do tonight.

- Worked, mainly setting up our display to promote the Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics.

- Received the original art for the Scalped bookplate we’re doing. I’ve bought it off Guera, who is a top guy. He threw in a painted piece of Dash pointing a gun for no extra charge (well, “To show that we’re all still human”, as he felt bad about charging for the art). I’m glad I decided to go for this, as it’s a nice piece of comic art that actually has significance to me. Really, for all intents and purposes, it’s a commission.

- Went home to an empty house. Alex was away for the evening visiting her family in Kent. I ate lamb and watched Gone Baby Gone, which was depressing as hell. Then I watched some more Outrageous Fortune before hitting the sack.

- Had some totally fucking crazy dreams which I can’t remember. Really not sure what they mean.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Sometimes it’s best to cut your losses and start over again. In that spirit, yesterday I:- Worked from home for the morning. Made up title cards for the interview and inserted them throughout each segment, but was faced by an annoying level of pixelation in the lettering and logo whenever I rendered the finished result out as a movie. After some playing about I think I cracked it, but a frustrating amount of effort for something that’s going to go on YouTube. Still, the more care taken along the way, the less shit it will look in the end.

- Was owed 4 hours, so I took the afternoon off. At least that was the theory. In reality I just dithered around a bit more on the interview.

- Went out with Alex for lunch. There’s a great little Turkish place around the corner called Casaba which is basically a meze joint. Six quid gets you a plate of six different mezes, so we got two plates and shared. Very nice.

- Went home and pissed about a bit more on the bloody interview. Mind you, this is when I think I sorted my problem out, so it was time well spent.

- Made dinner and we sat down and went over wedding stuff. Came across a few problems which I think we came to an agreeable solution on. As ever we had to remind ourselves of exactly what it’s all about. Still plenty to organise, with a month and a half to go!

- Read some comics. I can barely remember what they were, which is a testament to their middle-of-the-road nature. X-Force: Ain’t No Dog had a okay back-up story by Jason Aaron, but is the first thing I think I’ve read of his that felt a bit pedestrian. Not like his current run on Ghost Rider, which is balls-to-the-wall crazy. The lead story was by Charlie "Moon ####ing Knight" Huston, who writes a story that feels very much like a nineties “gritty” tale. Unnecessary. Also notable for the juxtaposition of Wolverine graphically chopping the top off a man's head with the line, and I quote exactly, "Why the #### should I care?" Perhaps it's time for Gore Watch to live again...

- Watched In Bruges, which I loved. Lyrical, funny and not a little brutal, this is the kind of film that re-enthuses me to the idea of doing stuff myself. Colin Farrell reminds you that he can act, Brendan Gleeson is good as ever, and even Ralph Fiennes doing his best Ben Kingsley Sexy Beast impersonation doesn’t grate too much. Actually, I really like Ralph Fiennes, but to hear him put on some kind of cockney accent just doesn’t ring true.

- Started a new trashy bedtime book, a fantasy novel called The Lies of Locke Lamora. Good fun, essentially a heist story set in a fantasy stand-in for Renaissance Venice.

- Dreamt I was running down a platform, chasing a departing train. A part of me knew it was hopeless, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling I had left something important on my carriage. I gave up at the end of the walkway, bent over with my hands on my knees, dejected and out of breath. Not sure what it means.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Pasta is on the boil, but yesterday I:- Worked. In the morning I went in and worked on the order, then in the afternoon I went home and finished editing the Kevin O’Neill interview. This last stuff was quite tricky, as it veered away from the intentions of our initial structure and featured a lot of overlap. I broke it down into a section about O’Neill’s background, favoured work materials and inspirations, then another about the early days of 2000AD and how it changed things for artists. The latter doesn’t quite hold together as well as the other parts, but there’s still some interesting stuff in there. As to the editing, well, when these go up please keep in mind my lack of formal training and the fact that I haven’t edited anything in a good couple of years.

- Watched Isle of the Dead, one of the films from my Val Lewton box set. Genuinely creepy, it’s the tale of a group of people quarantined on a tiny cemetery island in Greece in 1912. An outbreak of plague creates a tense, suspicious atmosphere, as reason is pitted against superstition. The final act, steeped in night time shadows, is chillingly brilliant. I’ll put a fuller review up soon, I think, as I will for all these Lewton films.

- Read some comics, including Criminal Vol 2 #3, which is fantastic. I can’t say enough good things about this series. This issue, set in the early 70’s and focussing on femme fatale Danica, follows the grim tone that the previous issues of Vol 2 have set, all working to create a background for the current-day goings-on of the series. Seriously, a classic comic in the happening.

- Played some TF2 and did very well as a Sniper. There’s one particular server I tend to stick to now. It’s friendly, well-behaved, has a ton of great custom maps and has some nice custom touches: everyone runs around with party hats on and when people die they burst into an explosion of confetti, wrapped presents, cogs and wheels and of course bloody chunks of meat. It’s a nice touch that makes it all feel a bit more fun. By contrast I went onto another server yesterday to try out a different map and it was the usual chorus of “fucking noob”, “suck my cock, faggot”, “fuck you, fucker” kind of drivel that makes you realise that you’re playing with 13 year-olds. To be fair, with the stunted social development experienced by so many shut-ins these days, I’m probably dealing with significantly older folks than that. That being said, sticking to European based servers tends to eliminate most of that, not that I wish to imply anything about our trans-Atlantic neighbours. Though I did happen to log onto a particularly chatty French server one night, which was a little surreal.

- Watched the final episode of this season of Peep Show, which was great. I’m impressed with the quality they’ve managed to keep up on the show across 5 seasons. Hopefully they’ll do more. God knows it’s a better use of Mitchell and Webb than their sketch show.

- Read my book and hit the sack.

- Dreamt I was a bird with a broken, useless wing. As much as I wanted to I couldn’t fly. Couldn’t soar to the ecstatic heights at which I once flew. My wing, flaccid and lifeless, just wouldn’t bear me there. Not sure what it means.

Saturday, June 07, 2008

- Went to Clissold Park to write. Had poached egg on toast for lunch. Moving around to different places each day off is proving to be quite enjoyable.

- Went up to the Arena Shopping Park on Green Lanes to do some window shopping in Home Base. Picked up a webcam for Alex’s gran and a chest of drawers for Alex to replace her shonky canvas ones.

- Discovered that hauling 30kg of flat pack furniture home on the bus is great in theory; in practice not so much.

- Put together said drawers while watching episodes of Outrageous Fortune (NZ-made white trash comedy-drama) on DVD. I picked the first two seasons up when I was in NZ because I had heard it mentioned so often, but had barely watched any. I’m rather enjoying it.

- Mixed evening. Played some TF2 (and I was rubbish), read some comics, watched Planet of the Apes and the Commando Director’s Cut commentary (which wasn’t very good) and finally watched a few episodes of American Dad before hitting the sack.

- Dreamed of a spark of light in an inky blackness, dancing just out of reach. Not sure what it means.

I'm going to go get breakfast by Clissold Park. But the day before yesterday I:- Worked, but kept out of the delivery. It works very well in terms of getting other things done, but I do feel a little disadvantaged in terms of knowing what has actually come in.

- Finished a little early and went with Dana to Moss Bros in Covent Garden to organise my wedding suit. It was quick and painless, which is ideal when it comes to me and suits.

- Then off to Kentish Town, where Alex and I saw the Guillemots, who were great live. Largely staying away from the slower material, it was a fun, upbeat gig. On the one real quiet treatment of a track, however, I was struck by how much I hate London audiences at popular indie acts. Everybody just blabs away, oblivious to the music or the enjoyment of those around them. But then I shouldn't be surprised that a gig in London by a "hot" band would be full of selfish, big-mouthed cunts. I think it particularly stood out this time because I've been doing more metal gigs lately and the audiences there are slightly more enthusiastic. Anyway, the band were great and I still enjoyed myself, so thanks to Alex, who got the tickets as an anniversary pressie for me.

Fall so far behind on something that it was just silly? But anyhow, the day before the day before yesterday I:- Had the day off, as I’m working this Saturday.

- Spent time sorting the details of mum’s flight over for the wedding. Almost there with it, just a couple of details to iron out and then it’s time to fork over the moolah.

- Got out and about. Had a very nice eggs benedict for lunch at a cafe near Angel, then decided I would go down to Liverpool Street to do my writing for the day. Hadn’t been down there in a while, and I certainly hadn’t spent any time sitting there in a while. So I sat in the Nero there and did my writing, read my book and just generally sat and people-watched, which I don’t do nearly often enough these days.

It's raining and I have a headache. But yesterday I:- Worked from home, which is a decidedly strange experience. I was editing the Kevin O'Neill interview we shot the other week, which has come out okay, despite just using the onboard mike. A bit quiet with some background noise, but we weren't exactly working in a studio. I haven't edited anything in at least two years and I had forgotten how long it takes to get stuff done. Still, I have largely finished cuts of short interviews about Nemesis, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Marshal Law. I still have to put together two more about art and the history of the British comics scene which didn't play quite as discretely in the interview as we had anticipated, so a bit of work to do there. I do like working in my pyjamas though!

- Stir-fry for dinner, then we worked on wedding stuff, dealing with replies, following up non-replies and so on.

- Hit the sack and read my book.

- Dreamt I was in a stable, shovelling horse manure. No matter how much I shovelled away, I never seemed to making any progress. In fact, the level of manure became deeper and deeper, until I was trapped, unable to move. Struggling in vain to free myself, I was helpless as the manure rose above my head, suffocating me. Not sure what it means.

Monday, June 02, 2008

It's 8.20-ish in the AM, and yesterday I:- Worked. Spent the morning filing s/o comics, then in the afternoon did various bits and bobs, including finishing the Southwark order, replying to OK Comics regarding manga advice and worked on ComTrac for Windows. Also, spoke to Barry re: ComTrac stuff. Exciting!

- Treated myself to Wagamama for lunch. Mmm...

- On the way home I developed a craving for fish finger sandwiches, so that's what we wound up having for dinner. Haven't had them in bloody years and boy did they taste good! This is the joy of adulthood that I always dreamed of.

- TF2. Got my best kill score as a Pyro.

Muaaaagh!

- Watched the last Pushing Daisies of the season. I really enjoyed it. I guess the secret to appreciating the show is to leave a decent gap between each episode.

- Read for a bit. Hit the sack.

- Dreamt I stood on the field of battle, drenched in the blood of my enemies. All around me their corpses stood, pointing at me, laughing. Not sure what it means.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Tomorrow I'm working from home! But yesterday I:- Went to John Lewis to work on our wedding gift loist. Quite exciting, wandering about JL with a little barcode-scanning pocket PC building a wish list. It was quite tough actually, as there are a lot of things associated with a traditional gift list that we just don’t need. Rest assured though (as I’m sure you will) that we managed to find some things to our liking. Still some work to do, but we can probably do it all online from here. For curious parties: our list will go live with John Lewis on the 20th June.

- Was tortured by indecision in the HMV box set sale by the choice of the Kubrick Collection for £35, or the Hammer Box (21 films!) for £40. Wound up buying neither as I badly want both. Next pay I might just have to treat myself.

- I did, however, buy the region 1 Val Lewton collection which should hopefully be making its way to me soon. I was also excited to discover Muppets Season 3 is on the way.

- Went home and Alex flaked out (the result of an all-nighter) while I puttered about on the PC.

- After Alex woke we wandered down to get stuff for dinner, then settled in for the evening. Saw some of Britain’s Got Talent. How ridiculous was that 12 year-old girl’s voice? So incredibly resonant! Anyway, of greater import is that we watched The Bank Job, which was just fantastic. I highly recommend it as a great example of what a British crime film should be (though it is directed by Kiwi Roger Donaldson) rather than just another well ‘ard pose fest.

- More Team Fortress. Really started to wrap my head around the Demoman class. Went to bed feeling strangely aggressive.